Is in the keg. Took the final gravity reading at 1.015, a bit higher than what I expected, especially given the large, highly-active starter that I pitched. But, it has a nice color and taste, even though flat. Now I just wait for carbonation.
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Commodore Perry CloneCommodore Perry Clone
Just brewed on Saturday. First time in a long time. Details unnecessary, but back on the hoss. I’ve committed myself to brewing a Commodore Perry clone repeatedly until I get it right. An homage to a great beer.
Noting meticulously my errors and successes. So this is round one. In the future, I’ll brew 2.5 gallon increments! =)
Here’s the recipe I went with. Variations in the future will be noted.
Recipie
| Ingredient | Quantity |
| Rahr Malt (2 Row) (1.9 SRM) | 15 lbs. |
| Caramel/Crystal Malt – 30L (30 SRM) | 1 lbs. |
| Honey Malt – (25 SRM) | 1 lbs. |
| Simcoe 13.0% | 1 oz. 60 min. |
| Cascade 5.50% | 1 oz. 30 min. |
| Willamette 5.50% | .5 oz. 30 min. |
| Cascade 5.50% | .5 oz. 20 min. |
| Willamette 5.50% | .5 oz. 20 min. |
| Cascade 5.50% | .5 oz. 10 min. |
| Willamette 5.50% | .5 oz. 10 min. |
| London Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1028) | 2L starter |
| Cascade 5.50% | .5 oz. Dry Hop. |
| Willamette 5.50% | .5 oz. Dry Hop. |
Hit my targets right on the money. It was beautiful. Too beautiful. I’m waiting for the other shoe right now, in fact.
Struck at 171 degrees and got a mash temp of 156.4.
Let it sit for un hora.
Then my seven-year-old son popped in to start helping me and broke yet another hydrometer.
But together we pushed on to triumph.
He helped through all the runs and vorlaufs:
- 1st Run @ 149 degrees, 3 gallons, 23 brix, 1.094 SG (no hydrometer)
- 2nd Run @ 143.5 degrees, 2 gallons, 23 brix, 1.094 SG (no hydrometer)
- 3rd Run @ who cares degrees, 2 gallons, 9 brix, 1.034 SG (no hydrometer)
- Wort in 8 gallon pot at 7.0 gallons, 17.5 brix, 1.068 SG (no hydrometer)
Boiled for 70 mins, various hop additions, son helping with hop socks and sniffing and considering the differences between hop varietals. While also stirring the 7 gallons of boiling wort and causing me no end to terrible scenarios in my mind, esp while touching the ball valve on the boil pot.
Got a post boil volume of around 6 gallons at 1.079 OG, pitched the yeasties, and …
The fermentation is sluggish. Smells bad. May have effed up the starter. Sour Commodore anyone? I could be pessimistic, too. Stuck my nose in the fermenter and had my eyebrows burned off. Loving life. If this one is bad, I’ll do another.
Old Christmas BastardOld Christmas Bastard
That’s what I named my Christmas beer. It’s a pretty good beer. The main detractor from the Christmas beer was that when I Christmassed it, I over bittered. The beer is an Arrogant Bastard clone, and so is sufficiently bitter already. Then I added the orange peel and curacao (along with everything else), which sealed the deal. Consequently, I had to sweeten it with 4oz of milk sugar (lactose). It worked very nicely, the beer has a sweet front end and a very balanced bitter finish. Bitterness does pass with time, so it was important not to over-compensate on the sweet side.
Old Christmas Bastard was well-received by friends and family and all that remains is three twenty-two ounce bullets. In addition, I entered the beer in the Wizard of Saaz competition which concluded recently, and, unfortunately, by some cosmic mistake, the beer was not judged in the competition. The message from Mike Yingling read, partially, as there was a “screw up in the cellar. The beer was on the pull sheet but the stewards & cellar master must have made a mistake. I’m very sorry your beer was not judged.” However, I am far more interested the evaluation of the beer, and Mike emailed to tell me that it would be reviewed and the results sent.
So, there goes the first competition; but that was the first for me. There will be many more, now. I’m very interested in getting the feedback on my beers as, when you brew for a long time, as I have, you get into certain habits of approach to the brewing process. I try as much as I can to read and adjust and experiment, but at the end of the day my brew session is to get the beer brewed so I can drink it! Competitions will help point out areas that are weak and push me in the direction of exploring more intensely the questions of the process.
Conway CloneConway Clone
My last brew session was a Conway’s Irish Ale clone of the Great Lakes Brewery beer. I chose this one at my wife’s behest and the thought that my dad would enjoy this one as well.
The clone is not precise for a few reasons, the first being that I don’t have a whole lot of money to throw around right now and I had a backlog of ingredients on hand. As I pursued a clone recipe for Conway I learned that Great Lakes uses Harrington 2-row as the base for most of its brews. This is good to know, as I have a desire to try a few clones: for instance, my Christmas ale this year used a Nosferatu clone as the base–again, however, I didn’t know about the Harrington 2-row. I learned about the base characteristics of Great Lakes brews from a nice post on The Beerists blog site.
In looking around, the only places I’ve seen that carry Harrington are Midwest Supplies and Northern Brewer.
Additionally, Great Lakes uses quite a bit of Cascade.
Regardless, here is the clone that I used:
- 11 lb Maris Otter
- .75 lb Crystal 80
- .10 lb Crystal 40
- 1 oz Northern Brewer (30 min)
- 1 oz Hallertauer (10 min)
- .75 oz Fuggle (5 min)
- WLP002 British Ale yeast
We’ll see how this compares, although I expect significant differences. In the future, I aim to try this again with a more precise version that uses Harrington 2-row, Cascade, and Wyeast London Ale 1028.